Ulster Unionists and the British and Irish governments must be "reasonable" about what can be achieved in the coming weeks, the Sinn Fein president Mr Gerry Adams said last night as he put his party on an election footing in Northern Ireland.
Mr Adams held his third round of talks with the UUP leader Mr David Trimble at Stormont yesterday evening aimed at restoring elections, after which he briefed party members on the political way ahead.
He told a gathering of Sinn Fein TDs, former MLAs and party activists from all over Ireland at Stormont yesterday that the party must prepare for autumn elections in the North, and said Sinn Fein would again be the story of the EU and local elections in the South next year.
While "formally" putting Sinn Fein on an "election footing" in Northern Ireland he qualified his comments by stressing that it was uncertain whether the British Prime Minister would trigger an autumn poll. Regardless republicans must be ready to combat an election.
In Staffordshire yesterday the Northern Secretary Mr Paul Murphy said he was hopeful that elections would be called in or around November.